Exploring Gratitude With Your Child

*Collaborative Post

As parents, it is a common desire to want to provide your child with every opportunity, luxury and happiness life has to offer. However, in doing so, the risk of raising an entitled child who doesn’t understand or value the importance of hard work increases. Gratitude is an important value that all parents should encourage their children to develop. It helps with mental health, performance in school and overall wellbeing. It involved reflection on all the blessings in life that help us feel happy, loved and secure. This could be family, a home or even the food in your kitchen. Children who practice gratitude are more connected to the world around them which helps them develop their confidence and ability to do well in life. Here is a simple guide on how to explore gratitude with your child.

Be a good role model. Children look up to their parents and learn from their practices. Modelling gratitude daily will not only help you improve your mindset but teach your child how it should be done. This could be appreciating the lovely cup of coffee you had in the morning or how beautiful the weather was that day. 

Try your best not to complain. Once picked up, it becomes difficult to let go of and leads to a pessimistic individual. The more you complain, the more you’ll notice your children will too. In frustrating situations, show your child how there is always a silver lining and something positive in every space. For example, if there are delays on the road on the way to a destination you can express your annoyance but also show gratitude for the extra time you have with your child that day. 

Help your child show their appreciation. Teach your child how to write thank you notes to teachers at the end of the school year or even write to grandparents just to let them know how loved they are. 

There doesn’t have to be an occasion to show gratitude, it is something that should be a part of your child’s daily routine. It is one of the most effective ways of improving mental health and maintaining an optimistic attitude which will gradually lead to success. 

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.

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